THE VP AWARDS PARTNERS

The inaugural Virtual Photography Awards are here to celebrate the best in video game photo modes and virtual photography from 2020; bringing together players and photographers from across the globe.

To help make this event the best it could be, it was important to put together a team of partners consisting of experienced capture artists, virtual photography community leaders and world-renowned real-life photographers, all spanning across four continents.

EXECUTIVE JUDGES

This executive panel will be judging the "Virtual Photograph of the Year" categories, ultimately deciding on the winners of the 5 public entry categories from the shortlisted finalists.

Leonardo Sang is a self-taught freelance photographer and co-founder of the strategic design studio, Estúdio Arnold based in São Paulo, Brazil. Having worked for 8 years as a graphic designer, he now practises his photographic skills whenever possible, including family trips and real-world assignments.

Along with analog and digital photography, Leonardo has also pioneered a virtual photography project since 2011. Named VRP (Virtual Reality Photography) and considered experimental at its time of origin, the work involves the application of real photographic techniques in video game worlds and has lead to Leo contributing to more than 15 published articles on virtual photography and displaying images in the ‘Virtual Worlds’ exhibit at the Up Up Gallery, London.

Born and raised in Scotland - Liam moved to Canada within two years of graduating, becoming the youngest director at Ubisoft and working on Far Cry & other unannounced titles. In parallel with his blossoming career in video games, Liam also became a self-taught photographer and his debut photo series, 'Tokyo Nights (TO:KY:OO)’ gained worldwide recognition. With words by game creator Hideo Kojima and visual futurist Syd Mead, the book became the largest crowdfunded publication in the UK.

Now freelance and working on unannounced projects, as well as being a regular public speaker, Liam has since collaborated with many high-profile companies, artists, musicians and directors and was listed as one of Forbes Magazine’s Influential 30 Under 30.

A professional landscape photographer from the North of England, Pete has a long-term love of photography with a true passion for landscapes that stems back to an inspiring visit to the Highlands of Scotland in the 1980’s. With a firm belief that you never ever stop learning about photography, he is always brushing up with tutorials and hosts regular tutorial workshops to help others learn.

Amongst several awards, Pete won the Landscape Photographer of the year award in 2018 and has published work in Amateur Photographer & What Digital Camera magazines, as well as collaborating with Sony and Kojima Productions to produce a short documentary on how real-life landscape photography translates into the Death Stranding photo mode.

SPONSORSHIP

The creative photo editing software suite from Topaz Labs, Topaz Studio 2 focuses on a fine-tuned and non-destructive workflow that is devoted to creative photo post-processing to let you explore your artistic vision with powerful filters and masks.

To support this year's Virtual Photography Awards, Topaz Labs are providing a full copy of Topaz Studio 2 (RRP $99.99) for each of the 5 Virtual Photograph of the Year category winners. Topaz Studio 2 works as a stand-alone editor or as a plug-in for Adobe Ps & Lr on Windows & Mac systems.

ADVISORY PANEL

The advisory panel is responsible for helping to put together the "Game Industry Photo Mode Award" categories, as well as the shortlists of finalists for the "Virtual Photograph of the Year" public entry categories.